Recently, a friend came to me complaining that his recently purchased cell phone screen was broken, coincidentally, he did not buy a broken screen insurance, and eventually spent a lot of money to replace the screen.
I was thinking that if my friend had bought a Rugged Smartphone, there would not be such a problem, but why has the Rugged Smartphone, which is waterproof, dustproof and shockproof, not been popular? Why is it only a niche category in smartphones? Why only a specific group of people will use this type of phone, such as construction workers, hunters, outdoor enthusiasts, etc.?
First of all, people's impression of Rugged Phone is still stuck in a very long time ago, when talking about Rugged Phone, the first image that comes to many people's mind is Nokia 3310, which is indeed a kind of Rugged Phone, more precisely it is a feature phone, don't forget, there is also Rugged Smartphone. You can understand the Rugged Smartphone in this way, it combines the indestructibility of a feature phone with the intelligence of a smartphone.
The second is that it is not as good-looking and light as ordinary smartphones. The fact that the Rugged Smartphone does not look good is not entirely the fault of the designer, but a major reason is the limitation of engineering materials. Today, the phone to do waterproof and dustproof is not a difficult task. To achieve this goal, there are usually two options. One is by reducing the splicing of the body, and then use the waterproof tape and seal to block the body gaps, making the body waterproof, dustproof ability greatly increased. This is the idea of structural dust and water resistance. This sealing method also has many drawbacks, such as headphone holes, charging holes on the rubber plug deformation, it will destroy the phone's sealing, resulting in a decline in the ability to waterproof and dustproof. This will require the use of nano-waterproof technology. Simply put, the device surface is coated with a layer of nano-polymer, liquid and coating contact will condense into water droplets rolled off, so if there is liquid into the device, you can quickly discharge.
For rugged smartphone, these two options will basically be used at the same time. In the body of the charging hole, headphone hole parts of the rubber plug, although waterproof, mud-proof, but pulled down the body of the sense of sophistication. Another reason to reduce the beauty of Rugged Smartphone is the thick bezel. In order to prevent falls, rugged smartphone mostly use armor-type protective structure, the bezel is made thick and large, and the material mostly uses soft rubber to improve the toughness.
Finally, the rugged smartphone currently have some features that may not be particularly practical for many people, for example, thermal imaging camera, loud speaker, accurate coordinate positioning in the absence of card and no signal, these technologies may only used by a specific group of people.
I think these are the main reasons for the Rugged phone is not so mainstream, what do you think?
